Here's a Darcy and Elizabeth-centric chapter. Enjoy! I have slightly edited it to try to keep firmly within the "T" rating per Debu's review; please let me know if you think what I have now is okay for that purpose.
Chapter 12
Darcy and Elizabeth had a pleasant time watching the silly monkey and the man with the yellow hat. Darcy enjoyed seeing Elizabeth get sucked into their Christmas adventures and the man's attempt to understand his monkey's Christmas wishes. He watched Elizabeth's reactions far more closely than he watched the familiar movie, noticing every time she took a sip of the cocoa he had made, every time she pulled the candy cane from the mug and sucked on it. She has no idea how sensual she is, does she? Darcy thought to himself.
When the movie ended, Elizabeth commented with enthusiasm, "I can't wait until Jane has kids! I've always wanted to be an aunt. That's where all the real fun is at. And just imagine it, when I baby sit I'll get to watch all the cute kid shows with them."
Darcy shook his head a little in negation. "I watched plenty of kids shows with Gigi and not all of them were great. Mrs. Reynolds got her hooked on DVDs of Teletubbies and Barney." Darcy considered a moment, "And there was this show, LazyTown . . ."
"Oh I remember LazyTown. Lydia loved Sportacus with all his flips, but I think she was secretly rooting for Robbie Rotten. And those weird puppets and Robbie with his fake big chin and hair, so creepy. Ugh." Elizabeth grimaced.
Darcy got up and said, "I guess it is time to start working on breakfast."
Elizabeth wanted to help him, but she was still worried about how short her sleep shirt was (she had made sure the corgi blanket was over her the whole time they were watching the movie). She said, "I guess I will hit the shower then, before anyone else." But she didn't get up until he had left the room.
Darcy tried his best not to think about Elizabeth showering as investigated the Bingleys' fridge and cupboards. He tried not to think about Elizabeth in a steamed up shower. Darcy was pleased to find a whole package of bacon, a dozen eggs, veggies, butter, buttermilk and flour. He concentrated on thinking about the meal he was planning and not about Elizabeth might even now be washing her hair. He tried not to wonder how low her curls, when wet, might fall upon her backside or to think about said backside, or front-side or anything that really shouldn't be on his mind.
Thinking that others might be hungry, too, when they woke up, Darcy planned the meal to include cooking the full pound of bacon in the oven, making an omelet casserole and baking homemade biscuits. Although there was still more cocoa on the stove, Darcy knew he had to make coffee, too. It was a given that was needed as all the Bingley siblings had coffee every morning. While Charles and Louisa liked a lot of milk and sugar and just had one cup of coffee to start out the day, Caro practically lived on the stuff, black. She always said, "I like my coffee tall and strong. It is the perfect diet drink, caffeine and no artificial sweeteners."
While the coffee was brewing and the oven preheating, Darcy snagged a couple of little gingerbread cookies, munching as he pulled up a recipe site on his phone. The ginger and molasses flavors were not enough to blot from his mind the scent of Elizabeth's apple shampoo. He imagined white foamy shampoo bubbles in her hair, then being washed down her body. It was very distracting, even though Darcy did his best to focus on the task at hand. After reviewing several drop biscuit recipes, Darcy found one that seemed similar to a recipe he had used before and went to work.
When Elizabeth entered the kitchen, dressed and clean, in a t-shirt and jeans, barefoot and with a white towel still wrapped around her head, she paused and watched as Darcy scooped dough with a spoon and placed it on a tray. She noticed that the thin shirt showed his back muscles rippling as he moved.
Elizabeth moved a little closer and asked "What are you working on there?"
"Buttermilk biscuits. There, done. Open the oven door for me, would you?"
When the biscuits were safely in the oven, Darcy told Elizabeth about the rest of his cooking plans and Elizabeth volunteered as prep-cook. She set up a chopping board next to where Darcy had put the bowl, whisk and cartoon of eggs. Darcy wondered at her choosing to work so closely beside him, when on the other side of the sink there was a whole unoccupied counter.
Elizabeth chopped all the omelet add-ins for Darcy while he worked beside her, cracking the eggs into the bowl and whipping them with milk. The eggs were fluffy before Elizabeth was done chopping, but Darcy kept whipping as he didn't want to move away from her.
"Ready for me to add the peppers and onions?" Elizabeth asked. "I am out of space to chop the mushrooms."
"Okay," Darcy consented, halting his whisking. He released the whisk and grabbed a piece of red bell pepper off the green cutting board, popping it into his mouth.
"Don't be eating up all the pepper," Elizabeth instructed, her grin and playful tap to his arm making her words more flirty than annoyed. She lifted the flimsy green cutting board by the outside edges, forming a more conical shape for pouring. As she tilted the board towards the bowl, the side of her arm brushed Darcy's arm. While she barely grazed him, for less than half a moment, Darcy was instantly catapulted into a fantasy where he took hold of Elizabeth, pulling the towel off her head and running his hand along her cheek. But rather than do anything to make it come true, he simply turned back to his bowl that now needed to be mixed.
Darcy lazily stirred, imagining what it would be like to lean in Elizabeth's direction and kiss her, but he also watched Elizabeth's small and dexterous fingers as she washed the mushrooms and then cut them into perfect slices. He kept watching (although doing his best not to make it obvious), as she worked on the spinach, and three hothouse tomatoes.
Once, perhaps twice, Elizabeth's arm swept against his again. Those teeny, tiny touches did more for him than a make out session with Caroline would have (assuming he would ever make out with Caro).
When Elizabeth began seeding the tomatoes into a little bowl, Darcy objected. "The seeds are the most flavorful part."
"Yes, but the gel surrounding them makes the eggs watery. Don't worry, we won't waste them." Elizabeth scooped some glistening seeds and gel with her fingertips and held out the prize right near his lips. Darcy bent forward a little and sucked the seeds from her fingertips. While the tomato taste swept over his tongue, he barely tasted it. He was far too aware of the woman who had just fed him, and how she still remained close. Elizabeth didn't move her hand away the moment Darcy was done; her fingers lingered near his lips.
Darcy felt tempted to lick the last of the juice from the seeds from Elizabeth's fingers, but he feared doing the wrong thing. So there they just stood, staring at one another. Elizabeth was caught up in looking into Darcy's eyes and the intensity of the moment that had started out merely playful. Darcy was very aware just then of how thin his running shorts were. But then the towel around Elizabeth's head took that moment to slip down her head and while she was grabbing at it, the beep of the oven timer further interrupted the moment.
With regret Darcy moved away to get the buttermilk biscuits out of the oven. After the tray was on the stove, he adjusted the temperature. He grabbed a butter knife cut one of the biscuits open. Steam came out. Then he slathered it with butter on both side.
"Biscuit?" Darcy held out a biscuit in Elizabeth's direction. She took a bite from biscuit, right from his hand and immediately spat it out.
"Hot!"
"Oh, sorry! I didn't think."
Elizabeth embarrassedly cleaned up the pieces from the floor. If only the biscuit hadn't been so hot! But now I went and ruined the moment.
Darcy felt very embarrassed too. I should have known it was too hot and now I've gone and maybe burned her mouth. Why do I always have to mess up like this around her? To try to make it up to Elizabeth, Darcy prepared a cup of cold water with ice for her and then fixed Elizabeth another biscuit. This time he put it on a plate and brought it to her. "Sorry about before, it will cool off soon enough and the hold water might help if you burned your mouth or tongue."
Elizabeth dutifully sipped on the cold water and then carefully nibbled bites of the biscuit. "This is really good," she told him. However, to her mind it could not be as good as getting to eat it from Darcy's hand.
After Darcy finished eating the other half of his biscuit, he began pulling apart the strips of bacon and laying them on a tray with a drip pan beneath. While he was working, Elizabeth finished the egg casserole and poured it in the pan. When both items were in the oven, Darcy asked, "Do you think you can watch them? I'd like to get in a shower before everyone is up."
Elizabeth consented, watching as Darcy walked away. When she fancied she heard the water, she imagined Darcy striping and washing himself clean. She had been doing her best to be playful and flirty, but she just wasn't sure if Darcy was getting the hint until he tried to feed her the biscuit, and then, somehow it was all too late. "Tragic," she mumbled to herself.
The cooking bacon smelled wonderful and the scent was even more powerful when Elizabeth pulled the tray out to drizzle maple syrup over each strip. Elizabeth had just put the tray back in the oven for a few more minutes, when Gigi and then Charles appeared.
"Where's the bacon?" Gigi asked. "You didn't just fry some up for yourself, did you?"
"Yeah, where is it? It smelled so good I had to get up. I was hoping to snag some for me and Jane." Charles added.
"It is in the oven and almost done. I think the eggs will take a bit longer," Elizabeth responded. "While I've been babysitting it, Darcy's the one who made it."
Darcy had perfect timing, emerging dressed from the bathroom, his hair still wet, just as Elizabeth was dishing up servings of the bacon, omelet and biscuits. The table was almost full, with some people dressed and others in their pajamas or robes. Charles was just leaving with two plates, "Breakfast in bed for me and Jane," he said to Darcy. "Thanks for making it." Then Charlie grinned and said, "It was awesome to wake up to breakfast. Jane had planned to cook herself, but she deserves to rest after all that cooking."
"Yes she does," Darcy responded. "Please thank her again for hosting us and for the wonderful meal." Yes, Darcy was certainly grateful, but it had more to do with a certain curly haired brunette near him, than the previous day's meal.
Darcy happily dug into the plate that Elizabeth passed him, and was happy when she took the chair beside his. It just felt right to have her there.
"Where are Caro and Anne?" Louisa asked.
"Caro's still sleeping as far as I know, but I doubt she would eat any of this stuff anyhow, and Anne's asleep in the closet again," Gigi reported.
"Oh no!" Darcy exclaimed. "Anne must be stressed out about her mom. Standing up to her and going someplace without her mom's approval . . . she's never really done that before."
Gigi explained about how closely Aunt Catherine kept track of everything having to do with Anne and then told everyone about the many messages they had each gotten on their phones. Louisa and Elizabeth were both horrified about how controlling Catherine de Bourgh was. Louisa asked, "So she's almost thirty and she's never lived on her own? Never had a job? Never even went to school as a kid?"
"Nope, none of those things," Gigi responded.
"But you have to understand," Darcy found himself defending his aunt, "Anne was expected to die years ago. Somehow, her mom has kept her going, always trying to wait for the science to advance. She's kind of kept her in a sort of protective bubble."
"But what kind of a life is that?" Louisa asked.
"The only one she's known," Darcy responded. "She may get a bone marrow transplant from our cousin, and hopefully then she really might be cured."
Q didn't seem to be following the conversation closely. Instead he was nursing his coffee, clearly hung over and more than a little grumpy. However, then he noted, "Good thing Anne's mom doesn't have a transporter, because she would have beamed her daughter back for sure, or maybe sent a shuttle crew down to get her."
"Quit it with the Star Trek references, would you?" Louisa groused.
"You didn't mind it so much when I dressed up as Data and asked how I could serve you," he retorted.
"Yes, but I really didn't like being one of those green ladies for the last convention. It was so hard to get the green makeup off afterwards." Louisa noted.
Elizabeth didn't know what to make of the exchange, but Darcy had an inkling of what was coming, having seen this show before.
"You were an Orion slave girl," Q corrected. "They are famous for their animalistic sensual ways, but really with their pheromones, they can enslave a human man." Q told the rest of them. Then he beckoned to Louisa with a finger. She got up and sat herself in Q's lap and then they started to make out, pausing now and then for Louisa to feed Q a bit of bacon, or for him to feed her instead. When their food was gone, their making out resumed in a sloppy, obvious way.
Darcy supposed he was happy for them, but Gigi spoke for all of them when she said, "Go get a room."
Louisa shrugged, got up and then Q said, "Come with me, slave girl. I want to see you dance." They disappeared back into the guest room and the rest of them tried not to think about what they were getting up to.
After doing the dishes, Darcy, Elizabeth and Gigi all working together, they watched the Santa Clause with Tim Allen. Darcy sat on one end of the couch, with Elizabeth next to him and Gigi on the other side of Elizabeth. Darcy noticed that Elizabeth began leaning into him a bit as the movie progressed. He had his left arm stretched out on the back of the couch behind her, and she was not quite nestled into him. Jane and Charles joined them about halfway through the movie, sitting on the loveseat together.
Caro appeared just after the movie finished, looking more or less like her usual self, sans makeup. She had showered but was dressed in the same clothes as the day before because her luggage had not yet been found as far as she knew. She crossed the room for the kitchen and then returned with a mug of coffee and a yogurt. As the arm chair was the only open seat left, she sat down there.
During a commercial for hemorrhoid cream that reminded Darcy that the day before Caroline's face had been swollen and likely itchy, he asked, "How are you feeling today, Caro?"
Caroline shrugged, "I've been better but I am glad to be in one piece." She said nothing further and for the rest of the sequel she was so quiet that no one really thought about her at all after that.
When the Santa Clause II was over, Gigi noted, "I am so lazy, I think I could watch movies all day."
"Not me," Elizabeth responded. "I've got to get out and take a long walk and work off some of that turkey and bacon. You are coming, Darcy, right?"
"Sure," he said, grabbing his coat and shoes quickly, eager to leave before anyone might volunteer to join them.